Speech by TUV Titanic candidate Anne Smyth.
Politically, our capital city has fallen to republicanism. Even leaving aside the Green Party’s four councillors, there are 27 nationalists as against 20 unionists. This has resulted in blatant discrimination in council spending.
In addition to funding for Feile an Phobal, which holds 3 – yes 3 – festivals a year and is notable for giving a platform to the Wolfe Tones with their ‘Ooh ah up the Ra’ chant, the council has pumped public money into capital projects of long-term benefit to West Belfast. £1.35 million went to the Roddy McCorley Centre on the Glen Road for a so-called ‘Visitor Centre’ to rewrite history. No doubt it will neglect to tell ‘visitors’ that Roddy McCorley was in fact betrayed to the authorities by his co-religionists.
BCC’s contribution to a ‘visitor centre’ at Belfast City Cemetery was £1.12 million. This cemetery contains the graves of many Protestants, including the notable Sir Edward Harland and Lord Pirrie, and the trailblazing educationalist Margaret Byers, but BCC still intends to erect Irish language signage, creating a ‘freeze factor’ that will cancel out its avowed intention to attract people from all communities.
The council also gave £3.5 million to the project for the restoration of the old St Comgall’s school on Divis Street, billed as a prospective multi-use community centre.
Meanwhile Protestant areas abutting the city centre, like Sandy Row and Shankill, are left with large undeveloped spaces or are earmarked for apartments rather than family-friendly housing. Natural unionist voters are moving out of the city to dormitory towns, driven by a perfect storm of council neglect and, it has to be said, fears for the future of their children.
Council approval has been given for a substantial social housing-led residential development for Ballymurphy, an area which is expanding towards the Protestant Highfield estate. It will be the TUV’s role in council to provide a strong voice for the development of neglected unionist areas on behalf of those who have been left behind.
Now the council has agreed a rate increase of 7.99%, the highest in Northern Ireland. No local authority in England can increase council tax by more than 5% without a local referendum, and the TUV is advocating that this rule be adopted as a matter of urgency in Northern Ireland.
Belfast City Council is not prioritising front line services but instead is glorifying terrorism. Part of the Feile March festival, which extended St Patrick’s Day for almost 3 weeks, featured ‘The Ballymurphy Tour’ with the tagline ‘From Guerilla War to Government’, which informed those who signed up for it about the ‘resistance of the people in Ballymurphy to British rule’.
TUV is steadfastly opposed to wasting Belfast ratepayers’ money on Sinn Fein vanity projects that do nothing for the wider community other than increase division. Another example of this is BCC’s recently approved policy that allows Irish street signs if only 15% of occupiers want them. For Sinn Fein, this brings the double benefit that while hoovering upyet more money provided by the endlessly generous ‘British rule’ it also makes Belfast a still colder house for unionist people.
As in the case of Clifton Street, the council has wide latitude to impose its own decision regardless of residents’ wishes, so in fact Sinn Fein in BCC has uncontrolled authority on this issue. TUV will defend the human right of Belfast citizens to resist the imposition of Irish street signs upon them – andalong with the signs, an identity that is alien to them.
All the indications are that unionists on Belfast CityCouncil, having reconciled themselves to their lowly status, have settled down to being grateful for such concessions as come their way on condition that they do not make any noise. TUV will not be party to backroom deals and will shine a light into the dark corners of City Hall.
The unbalanced priorities of Sinn Fein have created a city in which no decent person could take pride. Our streets are filthy, instances of petty crime have rocketed, drugs are a major problem, and partisan hatreds are allowed free rein. TUV’s vision for Belfast involves a return to our former values, encouragement of mutual respect, and priority given to helping people in genuine need. If Belfast’s people trust us with their votes, we will represent them faithfully, honestly and steadfastly.